Dracut boards to brainstorm on school shortfall

By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com

Updated:
04/06/2013 10:09:10 AM EDT

DRACUT -- If it was any consolation, Town Manager Dennis Piendak informed Superintendent of Schools Steven Stone and School Committee Chairman Michael McNamara on Monday, the 2014 school district budget Stone presented "is probably the most comprehensive assessment of the School Department I've seen since I've been here," Piendak said.

But Piendak's compliment provided no comfort to McNamara, judging by his pained expression, as the School Committee ponders laying off an untold number of Dracut elementary-school teachers in July to make ends meet.

The School Committee has accepted the Board of Selectmen's invitation to a joint public meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Harmony Hall to discuss, debate and brainstorm possible solutions to the revenue struggles facing virtually all school and town departments, School Committee Vice Chairman Matthew Sheehan said.

"Everything should be on the table as we go about trying to solve this, and I go into Tuesday's meeting with the selectmen with an open mind," said Sheehan.

The meeting is expected to include a discussion of the idea put forth by School Committee members Joe Wilkie and Dan O'Connell to seek a Proposition 2 1/2 override from Town Meeting that, if passed, would provide desperately needed school funds.

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Also at the joint meeting, Sheehan said he plans to push anew his own idea for Town Meeting to discontinue the Community Preservation Committee's annual 2 percent tax, which draws about $600,000 annually from Dracut property owners into a bank account used strictly to purchase town land to preserve open space. At this time in Dracut's history, with an untouchable $7.6 million already sitting in the CPC bank account for future land purchases, that 2 percent tax could be redirected to address more pressing needs being felt by the school district, Sheehan proposes.

"I have nothing against the CPC fund, it's done its job since we started with it in 2001, but right now we have $7,628,503 sitting in that account -- and if that's not enough money down the road, it's not like the open-space tax is gone forever. We could bring it back at a future Town Meeting," Sheehan said.

"I would try to eliminate the CPC tax and reformulate the 2 percent tax for education. And (taxpayers) really wouldn't feel any new impact because it's already going on."

Though he has received much positive feedback for the idea, a similar proposal failed at a previous Town Meeting, Sheehan noted.

While McNamara, Wilkie and O'Connell have publicly supported the idea of seeking Town Meeting approval of an override, Sheehan and fellow School Committee member Mike Miles have been non-committal on the issue.

Several selectmen have publicly expressed skepticism that an override, designed to fund an operational budget, will fly. Especially so closely on the heels of debt-exclusion votes to fund the $60 million Dracut High renovation and Greater Lowell Tech expansion.

In presenting his requested 2014 operating budget of $29,677,282 to the Finance Committee on Monday, Stone included several sobering statements and statistics. "One in three families are now eligible for free and reduced lunch, making Dracut the second-most needy community in the Merrimack Valley, to Lowell," Stone said.

Cuts in funding for buildings and grounds maintenance have left the district with a growing inability to address repairs in a timely manner over the past three years, as the line-item for "operational maintenance" has gone from $441,000 in 2010 to $280,000 last year, Stone said.

Also, dollars allocated annually for textbooks have been cut in half in three years, at $100,000 for all schools in 2013, from $205,000 in 2010.

The specter of a Proposition 2 1/2 override question at Town Meeting has riled up many residents, triggering a polarizing debate on social-media sites and on The Sun's online message board.

One Sun message board poster, in arguing against an override, labeled proponents of the idea, "Wilkie's whiners." Those advocating the override included a poster who declared to an opponent, "We will be better off when your generation dies."

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